The Overseers of Complexity

1.

            I have an innate fascination for gadgetry

            Old constructions of brass and glass and numbers

            Designed to measure one thing or another.

            Enjoy compasses and sextants

            Things with gears

            Or wires that spin

            Something meant to determine location.

            The ritual adjustment of the divining tool appeals.

            If I can just get the alignment

            When the proper stars are up

            And present the correct offerings to the overseers of complexity

            Perhaps I will know where I am.

            I like small brown rocks for the same reasons.

2.

           Fits of homesickness come and go,

           Obeying no known rules of logic.

           I may be getting off of a plane from Oklahoma

           And already be missing the heavy, wet air

           Smell of terrapin

           Mine tailings

           The flood plain of the Neosho river.

3.

            Stirring the Creek water

            “A-m (a)”

            She said.

            Later I asked her,

            “Is it still

            Water

            When it comes out of the tap?”

4.

            While planting the garden

            I discover

            Four mason jars containing

            Words on paper.

            Pages torn from a

            Ledger book,

            Covered in

            Tiny writing

            Three seem to be poems

            One just says,

            “Beans”.